Physically testing products such as vehicles is a key part of the product development quality assurance process. Robots can be used for product testing. For example, when testing vehicles, robots may be used to operate a vehicle and may provide greater consistency than human drivers in repeatedly following a predefined driving path and/or in meeting other test parameters such as maintaining vehicle speeds, acceleration, etc. Robots also may relieve humans from monotonous and/or hazardous testing conditions. However, robots suffer from the drawback of not being able to detect potential problems in a test prototype that may arise during product testing.
For example, in addition to piloting a test vehicle, a test driver also has an important responsibility to detect mechanical anomalies in a vehicle. In fact, it is better if a product tester such as a vehicle driver detects mechanical issues in early rather than later stages of mechanical failure to prevent unnecessary secondary damage to a prototype, e.g., prototype vehicle, that may be expensive and or of limited availability. The inability of existing test systems to provide for early detection of prototype malfunctions and failures has been an impediment to using automated test technologies such as automated driving technology in product testing, such as vehicle durability testing.